Philadelphia Shelter Dog Gets Loving Home — At The Ripe Old Age Of 16

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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – She may have waited a long time for a home, but a blind dog from the PSPCA found a good one.

Cocoa, a 16-year-old blind Pekingese, was used to being passed over when prospective adopters came to visit the PSPCA.

But Theodore Reif and his wife, Rachael, saw the dog on the shelter’s website and knew they had to have her.

“I know she can’t see and that she is old, but she is a doll,” said Reif, a former Treasury Department supervisor who recently lost two pomeranians. “It’s horrible that an animal would be homeless at age 16. We want to give her the best life we can.”

During yesterday’s record-breaking snow storm, he made the trek from his home in South Philadelphia to the PSPCA’s shelter on Erie Avenue to pick up Cocoa.

“This is the kind of adoption story that gives all homeless animals and their advocates hope,” said PSPCA CEO Jerry Buckley in a release. “When someone goes the extra mile to welcome an animal like Cocoa into his family, we know it’s meant to be. Reif is a PSPCA hero.”

And those at the shelter want to remind others about the pros of adopting a senior pet: They’re already full grown, they’ve usually been trained and housebroken and they tend to settle more easily.

For more information on all of the PSPCA’s dogs, visit: www.pscpa.org.